Monthly Archive for September, 2010

Git Yer Updates Here!

Lots of updates today, folks!

Probably my most exciting news is that Eye of the Tempest has its release date! My fourth book (eep!) will be coming out August 1, 2011. The cover is almost ready to be shared, and, again, I’m really happy. It’s super fun! Everything should be up on Amazon, shortly.

In other news that makes me incredibly proud and happy, my mentee, Lauren Stone, has just signed with my very own agent. I loved Lauren’s project, and was thrilled to pass her work to Rebecca (my agent), and even more thrilled when Rebecca also thought it was something special. You can read Lauren’s own take on her signing with her new agent, here.

I’ve also just announced a new signing in November, in Lancaster, PA. You can read about it on my appearances page. And don’t forget that in October I’ll be at Borderlands, in San Francisco, for LitCrawl!

For those of you interested in my newest new role as a creative writing professor, I’ve done an interview with Creative Writing Now, here.

In final Me! Me! Me! news, I’ve set up a Formspring account. This is a place people can ask me questions, and both the questions and answers will become part of this website’s FAQ. So ask me some questions, here, and I’ll be sure to answer them.

And now I switch the spotlight, only to use the distraction to doff my PIMP HAND. This week we saw many new releases, and I’m very excited to tell you about some of them!

First of all, one of my absolute favorite people, Carolyn Crane, saw the release of her second Disillusionist book, Double Cross:

I adored the first book, and can’t wait to read the second! If you’re intrigued, Carolyn made her own AWESOME book trailer for the second novel. I often hate book trailers, but I thought this one was so clever and awesome. It’s located here, and there’s also some other fun, book related things on her YouTube sight.

Another exciting release is Jeremy Lewis’s Revamped, now in mass market!

My old buddy from Shreveport, Rachel Vincent, has number six in her Shifters series, Alpha, out. This series has been on my TBR list forever, and everyone raves out about it. Can’t wait to dig in!

And last, but certainly not least, is Cherie Priest’s latest steampunk, Dreadnought:

Boneshaker’s cover was gorgeous, and I think this one is even cooler. Congrats, Cherie, and to all the other authors with Book Birthdays this week. Huzzah!

OH, I almost forgot! And speaking of Huzzahs, CONGRATS TO DAKOTA AND ROB! Love you guys! YAY FOR GETTING HITCHED!

See y’all back at the Emporium shortly! In the meantime, ask me some questions! ;-)

Published on September 30, 2010 in Appearances, Coming Soon!, Eye of the Tempest and Pimpage!. 4 Comments

Cooking With Nicole: The Art of the Tomato Rose

Making flowers out of things that aren’t flowers is a staple of seventies cuisine. I was only alive for two years of the 1970s, but my mom’s cooking repertoire was mostly formed in that decade.

So I am, at least in stomach, a child of the seventies.

This time, however, the proof is not in the pudding, but in the tomato rose. Yes, folks, one of my many completely pointless talents is the ability to turn just about any vegetable out there into some kind of flower. And one of the most satisfying of my Tricks With Vegetables (or fruit, in this case) is the tomato rose.

You want to start with a very large, very red tomato and a very sharp knife that gives you some mobility:

Begin your cut at the top, right by the green bit. Insert the sharp side of your knife under the skin. You’ll probably need to practice on a few tomatoes to get the right thickness of peel: too thin, and it looks anemic; too thick, and it won’t curl but will break. As for the width of your peel, you want about a good inch, so your rose isn’t too squat or too narrow when you roll it up. Here’s my first cut (keep in mind I have tiny chimp fingers if you’re using my thumb as a measuring aid):

Continue slicing around the tomato, just like you would if you were peeling an apple to make a pig-tail peeling:

Continue cutting all the way down and around the tomato. The key here, again, is thickness of peel. You don’t want it too thick, or you won’t be able to roll it without breaking it. Nor do you want it too thin, or you end up with a sad little anorexic rose.

When you’re done peeling the tomato, you’ll have a nice long tomato skin to flower-up:

To begin forming the flower, start by rolling one end of the skin–outside-of-the-tomato-inwards:

Continue rolling, keeping the tomato tight so it makes a nice, firm rosebud. And yes, I giggled typing that:

Keep rolling until your rosebud has become a rose. After which, you can secure it by either nestling it in a dip, as I’ve done below, or securing it with a toothpick or two if there’s nothing in which it can nestle.

And that, my friends, is how one makes a tomato rose. Be careful, or I may turn you into a garnish! Next time on Cooking With Nicole, I shall continue the Seventies theme with the above nestling-tool: good, old-fashioned, Seven-Layer Dip. YUM. See you shortly!

Published on September 27, 2010 in Cooking with Nicole!. 12 Comments Tags: , .

Things I Like: Three Cheers for Ra Ra Riot

I’ve blogged about Ra Ra Riot before, but they have a new album out! It’s called The Orchard And I loves it!

Here’s a taste from the new album, “Boy”:

And here’s one of my faves from their first album, The Rhumb Line, the song, “Can You Tell”:

How I love a cello!

Published on September 24, 2010 in Pimpage! and Things I Like. 4 Comments Tags: , , , .

On Jen Rardin’s Passing…

I’ve just learned from Orbit’s website that Jen Rardin passed away Monday, September 20th, 2010. I am incredibly saddened at this news.

Jen was one of the Orbit authors who immediately reached out to me, as a debut author. She was incredibly kind, generous, and helpful. She immediately offered to interview me on her site, and I really felt like I’d “made it” having someone whose books I admire pay attention to me.

As for her books, they’re fabulous. Lively and fun, they’re perfectly done episodes. I hope someday they’ll be made into movies, as they’d fit that venue perfectly.

And as an inspiration, she can’t be beat. She was a woman who clearly lived for and loved her family. Her acknowledgements and blog always touch on her love for them, and their importance to her as a woman and as an author. She seems to have had such a level-head, when it came to the business. She certainly knew that while getting the books out are important, so is living a private life. In fact, we talked about doing some signings together in my part of Illinois, but she ended up declining because her daughter was visiting from college. It was a lovely form of rejection, reminding me to look at my own life and decide what’s really important.

My thoughts, now, are with that family that was so important to her. I can’t begin to imagine their grief. I hope they take some comfort knowing how well loved Jen was, and that her books, along with her family, will continue her legacy.

Published on September 22, 2010 in Uncategorized. 26 Comments

Cooking With Nicole: Turkey Tacos, or “Put a Bunch of Shit in a Pot”

For those who have followed me here or on Twitter, you know I love tacos of all kinds. I’ve tweeted a lot of pictures of tacos in my day: chorizo tacos, tongue tacos, goat tacos, tacos in fancy restaurants, tacos from trucks, tacos for Taco Tuesday, the list is endless. But when I make tacos for myself and my friends, I usually make my Turkey Tacos.

Why? Because I like to put a lot of really unhealthy shit in my tacos. I want to slather on the sour cream, pile on the cheese, and add a healthy dollop of guac. And I want to eat two, till I’m bursting at the seams with taco goodness. And yet, I don’t want to feel too guilty, or feel like I can only make tacos once or twice a month, because they’re just piles of fatty goodness.

So I’ve learned to make a healthier filling, which mitigates my guilt about eating tacos as often as I can. It’s also a great way to use up leftover veg (something I’m terrible about).

Basically, my tacos are filled with ground turkey (obviously), and then Any Veg I Find In My Fridge. Hence the “bunch of shit in a pot,” part. For this outing, I had a of couple droopy carrots, a zucchini, a ginormo red pepper, an onion (you always want an onion), garlic, and what I thought were shelled edamame, but were actually pods of edamame, so they didn’t end up in the tacos.

Your first step is to cut up your veg, adding it to a pot over medium flame, into which you’ve added a generous few tablespoons of olive oil.

You can see that I’ve done quite a chunky dice on my veg. I’m an adult; I’m doing the cooking; I don’t need to be fooled. If you are cooking for kids who don’t necessarily want to know they’re eating veg, don’t forget you can always grate a carrot or grate a zucchini into a sauce, and they’re usually none the wiser. Chop the red pepper up fine, and it pretty much melts into the salsa-like texture of the final product, so they think it’s tomato. As they get older, you can stop grating and start slicing, so this is a great way to “thin edge of the wedge” some vegetables into their lives.

While I’m softening my veg (not browning, just softening), I usually cook the turkey meat (and this time I am going for a little browning) in a separate skillet to save time, while not overcrowding my pan. Rule number 4 of cooking meat is never overcrowd you pan! As liquid’s released in the cooking process, if you’ve got too full a pan you end up releasing too much liquid and steaming, rather than browning, your meat.

When both the turkey and the veg are done, combine and add a shit ton of taco spice. I buy the little jars of spice, rather than the individual packets. But if you buy the packets, to figure out how much you need, think in terms of pounds of meat and pounds of veg. And then add some extra, to make it even tastier.

After adding the spice, remember to add a cup or two of water that you’ll simmer off. This is especially important with the vegetables: if you don’t do this you have what’s more like fajitas than tacos. Which is delicious, but when you want taco meat, you want taco meat, and no fajita will do the trick.

While your filling is simmering away, you can pull out yer good stuff. Mmmm. Creamy.

And here’s the final filling. It’s actually about half vegetables, but you’d never know by the taste or the texture. Granted, some of that’s probably from all the MSG in the taco spice, but let’s not get persnickety! ;-)

Other good news: It freezes like a dream. So this is a good trick for making guilt-free tacos that are really, really tasty. And remember the grating vegetables trick: it works especially well in spaghetti sauce. So you can be feeding your kids the marinara they like, but spiking it with grated carrot and/or zucchini.

For those of you who are entirely vegetarian, or want a vegetarian option, do everything I did up until the turkey part. Instead of browning meat and adding it to the mix, open up and rinse three or four cans of beans. I like a combo of chickpea and kidney, OR cannellini and black beans. But obviously you can go nuts. Just add the beans, add the spice, and add the water (probably a bit more than with the meat) and boil the fuck out of it, till it’s the right consistency. I used to make this a lot in Edinburgh, as my former partner loved it and we didn’t have to worry about it being halal. You can eat it like a stew or as a taco filling.

This isn’t a fancy recipe, and it’s not even a recipe, really. But it’s a good way to think about cooking–use what’s in your fridge, try to sneak in vegetables wherever you can, and try either different meats than beef, or no meat, whenever possible. I’ve got nothing against the moo-cow, however Bessie isn’t very good for us on a daily basis.

Coming up next on Cooking With Nicole, I’ll teach you how to make a tomato rose garnish. How is THAT for seventies chic?

Published on September 20, 2010 in Cooking with Nicole!, Food! and Nicole Peeler. 13 Comments Tags: .

This Just In: UK Acquisition

When it rains, it pours! I received word this week that Orbit UK has acquired books 4-6. So, my British fans, you won’t have to worry about being cut off at Book 3. I know I’ve said it a thousand times, but I’ll say it again–I’m so happy to have Jane in the UK. And I’ll see y’all when I’m back in Blighty in January. In the meantime…

…God save the Queen! And the Sex Pistols! And bangers and mash! And toad in the hole! And Marks and Sparks! And… (this could go on a while).

Published on September 18, 2010 in Coming Soon! and Pimpage!. 1 Comment

This Just In: San Francisco and LitCrawl!

I’m a big fan of crawling: nightcrawling, pubcrawling, dropped-my-contact-crawling . . . and now LitCrawling!

After having planned a completely spontaneous, last-minute trip to go see my lovely friend, Jana, in San Francisco, I sent one of my typically annoying emails to Orbit’s ever-patient (and most probably magical) publicist, Jack. It read something like, “OMG! Wow, like, I’m ummmm gonna be in San Fran for like a few days–we’re going to eat from those zeppelins of meat!–so, um, could I do something there, and stuff? for the books? And stuff?”

Jack, once again, translated (hence the patient part) my mindless patois and then (magically!) found me an event to glom myself on to like an overzealous leech.

On Saturday October 9th, I’ll be appearing with the lovely Gail Carriger, amongst others, for LitQuake’s LitCrawl, at Borderlands, from 7:15-8:15. Full details can be found here, on my appearances page.

Shenanigans occur when Gail and I are together, as you can discover if you click on the pic…

As for other things I’m doing, I’ll be attending Whiskyfest that Friday night (so don’t light up any cigarettes near me on Saturday; we both may go up in flames from the fumes). I’ll also be taking my Oldest Favorite Lady, Jana, to meet some of my Newest Favorite Ladies at The House of Prime Rib. Rachael Herron, Juliet Blackwell, Sophie Littlefield, Jana and I plan on reenacting the scene from Anthony Bourdain’s visit to SF, where he gets rather blottoed and waxes poetic about the House of Prime Rib’s zeppelins of meat.

If one of us hasn’t nestled inside one of these fuckers by the end of our visit, then we obviously need another round.

I’m so excited for October, San Francisco, old and new friends, and ZEPPELINS OF MEAT! Come share my excitement with me at Borderlands! :-)

Published on September 16, 2010 in Music, My Travels and Over at Orbit Books . . .. 11 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

This Just In: Audiobook Actress!

I was trawling through my Amazon sites today and I discovered that they’ve announced who is reading Jane for my audibooks! A woman named Kate Reinders! Here’s a clip from some of her work:

Kate Reinders from Walleye Pictures & Sound on Vimeo.

I really like her in the second group of clips. And she reminds me quite a bit of Kristin Chenoweth, whom I adore. But what do ya think? Think she’ll make a good Jane?

Published on September 14, 2010 in Coming Soon!, Pimpage!, Tempest Rising, Tempest's Legacy and Tracking the Tempest. 19 Comments Tags: , .

Cooking With Nicole: Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit!

Hello mah friends! Today, we’ll be cooking Cuban black beans together. Cuban food is one of my all time favorites, ever since I went to Miami to visit my friend, Marcia Martinez, when I was a senior in High School. Her mom fed me picadillo, rice, and black beans, and I was hooked.

First of all, before we start, you might want to help yourself to an apron:

Because this recipe’s a spitter. Secondly, when it comes time actually to cook your beans, you might want a little mood music. Buena Vista Social Club, anyone?

And now for the recipe. The one I use is from this fabulous cookbook:

It’s such a great book, and the other recipes in here are fabulous. But for today, we’ll be using this recipe, for Cuban Black Beans:

You can tell from the schmutz on the pages how well loved this recipe is to me. It’s a great choice for lovers of Cuban food, or lovers of Mexcian food who’ve never tried Cuban. It’s also a great choice for vegetarians, or those who’ve gone gluten-free. You can serve it as a taco-filling, as a side dish for Cuban or Tex-Mex, or with rice as a main course. Make it brown rice and you’ll be so fucking hippie-tastic and healthy you’ll want to make out with yourself.

The first step is to soak your beans overnight. I hear much talk of pressure cookers, and rumors of how “nowadays you don’t have to soak your beans,” but I’m a soaker. I’ve always soaked my beans, and I’m sticking to it. I don’t really know why people bitch about this step: you put beans in a bowl and cover them with water. It takes two seconds. You don’t have to massage them for twenty-four hours, or anything.

When it comes time to cook your beans, use a large pot. There’s a lot of cooking down, and stirring of hot liquids, and this recipe tends to spatter, anyway. Mitigate risk to yourself and your clothing by using a big enough pot.

The second step to any bean recipe is Boil The Shit Out Of Them, and this one is no exception. So take your big pot, dump in yer beans, a diced red pepper, and a few bay leaves, like so:

Then cover with about 2 inches of water. One of the tricks to this recipe that comes with making it a few times is getting the timing/boiling right. The beans will cook, at this stage, for about 2 hours. You can add more water if you need to, but ideally, after making it a few times, you’ll get to where you know how hard to boil the right amount of water for a two hour cooking time.

When you have about a 1/2 hour left of boiling yer beans, you’ll want to start making your sofrito. Sofrito is the base of most Spanish food, and its influence is felt all over South America, the Caribbean, and everywhere else the Spanish set up shop. All it is is pepper, onion, and garlic, all softened together in lots of olive oil. Talk about yum! Here’s yer fixins:

The key to sofrito is not to fry everything hard. Keep the oil hot enough it sizzles, but no so hot it just fries everything brown in two seconds. You’re softening the vegetables, you’re not browning them. So watch your oil. It should look about like this as it goes in:

The other thing that I do at this stage is to throw in a few heaping teaspoons of red pepper flakes. I don’t use the rocatillo chiles the recipe calls for: they’re hard to source, and I always end up forgetting I’ve just cut up chile and touch something I shouldn’t. Ouch! So I use the red pepper flakes, instead. Obviously, you can adjust this seasoning to your preference, or feel free to follow the recipe and use the fresh chile.

The other thing you do, after the sofrito is cooked, is add the cumin and the vinegar to it. I use both, and I use the maximum amount suggested. Obviously, you can adjust to your taste. I use the cider vinegar, but when I was in Spain I always made this dish with sherry vinegar. It was SUBLIME. So if you can get your hands on the sherry vinegar a) use that and b) tell me where you got it.

After the two hours are up, and the sofrito’s made, fold it into your beans.

See how the vegetables aren’t fried brown? And also not fried to mush? As for the beans, you want them to be very much cooked down, but still quite liquid. You have another 1/2 hour of cooking, and you can always do some of that with the lid off if it’s still too wet for your liking.

When you mix in the sofrito, some magical bean alchemy makes them go all creamy. Yum! This is just from adding the sofrito:

After that, you cover the pot and let it all simmer together for another 1/2 hour. Again, if you’ve used too much water to start, you might want to take the lid off for a portion of this cooking time to evaporate some of the liquid.

Eventually, you’ll have a massive portion of beautiful, beautiful beans. What I did with this batch, as I live alone, is to freeze it in cup-sized portion. It’s a perfect meal-for-one, either served over rice or as two delicious burritos.

Oh, and of course I had one yummy dinner, right away. Just a spoonful of light sour cream, all over brown rice.  Yum!

So that’s how you make Cuban Black Beans. It’s so good! And thanks to Marcia to introducing me to Cuban food. If you’re reading this, I’d love to hear from you!

Published on September 12, 2010 in Cooking with Nicole!. 8 Comments Tags: , , .

Some More September PIMPAGE!

What are you doing this weekend, besides reading my new post up at Orbit’s site?? You bettah be buying some BOOKS, bitches! Cuz the pimp hand is a-flailing, as this week sees the release of some guaranteed pimp-tasticness!

First off, we have my friend, the lovely Michele Bardsley, whose Cross Your Heart released a few days ago:

Michele is also running a contest over at the League to celebrate her release. Next up is one of my fave writers to read, and someone whose support for my own books I heartily appreciate: the absolutely gorgeous Anya Bast, with her new Cruel Enchantment. I loved the first book in this series, and can’t WAIT to read the second.

Next we have a new one in Alyssa Day’s Atlantis Series, Atlantis Betrayed. I’ve not met Alyssa, but I love this series!

And another writer whom I don’t know, but who is is quite the sexy fetishista: Joey W. Hill has released Vampire Trinity. A little bloodsucking with your D/s, anyone?

In another Para-Rom offering, I probably don’t have to tell you that Sherrilyn Kenyon’s No Mercy was released. Mmmmm. Dark-Hunters. Mmmmmm.

On a totally different note, Rob Thurman’s released her second book in her Trickster series, The Grimrose Path:

And finally, last but definitely not least, one of my all time favorite ladies, the ever fabulous Juliet Blackwell has released the latest in her and her sister’s (as Hailey Lind) art world mysteries, Arsenic and Old Paint.

So many books so little time. The pimp hand hath smacked! Get thee to shoppin’!

Published on September 9, 2010 in Pimpage!. 6 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .